Apparatus for dry filling concrete piles



Oct. 27, 1953 L. I. VIERA RIOS ETAL 2,656,684

APPARATUS FOR DRY FILLING CC JNCRETE FILES Filed Feb. 12, 1951 Mm mm V/[RA R106 l. l/IS Al BERT 0 JWJT MQI/N/YQ/XA VL GA' w ATTORNEYS Patented Oct. 27, 1953 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Lionel Ignacio Viera Rios and Luis Alberto J os Mondino Fravega, Montevideo, Uruguay Application February 12, 1951, Serial No. 210,578

2 Claims.

This invention relates to apparatus for dry filling piles, in the presence of great quantities of water and with compressed air injection, which permits the building up of piles in any type of ground.

Fundamentally the apparatus comprises a casing in which a tubular conduit formed by interconnecting units, is placed, one of said units protruding from the casing and having a concrete delivering hopper at its outward end. A number of individually controlled hatches, being placed between the upper unit of the conduit, and the lower following units with each pair of hatches being connected to individual mechanical actuating means, in such a way that each hatch can be actuated independently from the other. A mechanical pulley is actuated from the inside or outside of the casing. A cable is connected to the pulley and guided in the inside of the lower tubular unit inserted in the ground, and Provided at the lower end of said cable with a pile hammer head. The apparatus is completed with other constructive and functional means hereinafter described, with reierence to the accompanying drawing which shows a vertical cross sectional view of the apparatus.

A casing l inside which a tubular conduit is placed with said conduit being formed by three interconnecting units, an upper unit 2, middle unit 3 and lower unit 4 to which, and by means of a joint 5, another lower unit 6 is connected, this last unit being adapted to enter the ground or water, according to the situation in the area in which the filling-up of the piles is to be carried out. Unit 2 protrudes from the casing l and has a hopper l for delivering concrete into the apparatus. A hatch 8 is positioned across the connection between hopper 1 and tubular unit 2 which immediately follows. A system of hatches 9 and I0 is the controlling means between hopper 1 and tubular units 2 and 3.

Hatch B is slidingly mounted on guiding members l l which at the same time are the connecting elements between hopper I and tubular unit 2, and is connected to rod I 2 ending in an individual controlling lever I 3, rod I2 being adjusted by sliding in a box l4 that extends from one of the sides of the guiding members I I. Said box 14 has, in the end through which the corresponding rod passes, a bushing by which the rod is guided for the forward or backward movement of the hatch 8.

Hatches 9 and H] are hinged at points and I6 respectively, and adapted for insertion of the ends thereof through shoulders I! and [8 into 2 grooves I9 and 20, made in the lower edges of guiding member I l and tube 2. Said hatches are conveniently connected to controlling levers 2| and 22 respectively, by which they are placed, when convenient, in the open position, shown 'by dotted line Z.

Within the casing l a pulley system is arranged for being actuated by a motor 23. .A cable 24 passes around a grooved pulley 25 placed in such a way that said cable runs through the center of the conduit formed by tubular units 4 and 6. Cable 24 has connected at its free end a pile hammer 25.

The operation of the machine for the filling-up process is as follows. There are two cases that can present themselves; one is when the ground must be drilled and the dirt extracted, and the other is when unit 5 is inserted without extracting material, the ground being simultaneously compacted. In the first case the work is done with drills with tubing being introduced in the drilled hole until it reaches bottom. In the second case, the lower end of the tube is closed by a head and the unit is hammered into the ground. All this is common practice.

Once a second tubular unit which, in the first case is tube 6, has reached the bottom of the drilled hole, or to the required depth-in the second case-the concrete reinforcement formed by rods 21 is placed in it. Once this is done, the tubular unit is connected by means of clamping joint 5, to unit 4, which places it in connection with casing I. Compressed air is injected into said casing until it reaches a higher pressure than that of the external water. In the first case, with the increase of the pressure the water is expelled from the tube. In the second case the tube is slightly raised together with the casing and pile hammer 26 is caused to strike on the aforementioned head until it reaches the desired point while the water remaining is excluded by the higher pressure in the tube.

Once the preceding steps are performed the filling up is begun, for which purpose concrete is poured into hopper 1, Communication between tubular unit 3 and the exterior is established and once the pressures are equilibrated, hatch I0 is rotated to position Z and hatch 8 is slid to its open position, the concrete falls into unit 2 and then hatches 8 and l I! are closed again, by members l3 and 22, leaving unit 2 in connection only with the inside of easing I. Once the pressure between them is again equilibrated, hatch 9 is opened, whereby the concrete falls by gravity through unit 4 to the bottom of unit 6.

Simultaneously the pulley system is put into work, by cable 24 being actuated, making hammer 26 strike heavily against the concrete with cable 24 having a mark for verifying which is the lower part of the hammer that strikes against the concrete, and which corresponds to predetermined distances-more or less 20" from the lower part of tubular unit 6. As more concrete is poured and hammered, casing l is lifted, by any means not shown, together with unit 6, this movement being regulated so that a level of no less than the said 20" of concrete remains in the tubular unit. In the first case, the primary tube is jointly withdrawn with unit 6, in such a way that the lower part of said primary tube remains continuously higher than the lower part of said unit 6.

It can be understood that the pulley system can be actuated either from the inside or outside of casing I. The operation of the internal members within the casing is carried out only when no great depths are required as the air pressure shall be limited to a pressure the operatorcan physically resist. The operator must alternatively clutch and declutch the motor 23 in order to transmit to hammer head 26 the intermittent movements for striking the concrete, and also he must actuate the apparatus for imparting the lifting movement to the casing and tubular unit 6. A second operator is in charge of the hatches 8, 9 and 10 which are externally actuated.

Regarding hatches 8, 9, and II], it is to be noted that hatch 8 performs the duty of supporting, the former ones, the weight of concrete, and hatches 9 and I 0 that of shutting off the escape of air without requiring a strong mounting, as the air pressure provides the required hermeticity, and in order to open them they must be sufficiently wide in order to avoid any clogging by the concrete, with the consequent loss of hermeticity.

It is clear that in what it is specified and shown in the accompanying drawings, modifications can be made without emerging from the scope of the invention.

.We claim:

1. An apparatus for dry forming concrete piles under water comprising an air-tight casing, a sectional tubular conduit detachably connected to and extending from the bottom of said casing, means for supplying compressed air to said casing, a hopper mounted on the top of said casing, a funnel extending from the bottom of said hopper through the top of said casing, a tubular conduit extending downwardly from and connected to said funnel within said casing, a second conduit connected to and extending from said first conduit toward the open top end of said sectional conduit, a door extending across the top of said tubular conduit for closing the same and being pivotally mounted thereon for being pivoted downwardly, a second door extending across the top of said second conduit for closing the same and pivotally mounted thereon for being pivoted downwardly, means extending exteriorly of said casing for operating said doors, said funnel having an opening provided in a side thereof, a third door slideably mounted through said funnel opening for closing said funnel, means for sliding said third door across said funnel; a hammer suspended in said sectional conduit, and means for reciprocating said hammer in said conduit as required.

2. An apparatus for dry forming concrete piles under water comprising an air-tight casing, a sectional tubular conduit detachably connected to and extending from and through the bottom of said casing, means for supplying compressed air to said casing, a hopper mounted on the top of said casing, a funnel extending from the bottom of said hopper through the top of said casing, a tubular conduit extending downwardly from and connected to said funnel within said casing, a second conduit connected to and extending from said first conduit toward the open top end of said sectional conduit, a hermetically scalable hatch mounted between and across said funnel and said tubular conduit for closing the same, a second hermetically scalable hatch mounted between and across said tubular conduit and said second conduit, means for opening and closing said hatches as required, a hammer suspended in said sectional conduit and means for reciprocating said hammer longitudinally of said sectional conduit.

LIONEL IGNACIO VIERA RIOS. LUIS ALBERTO JOSE MONDINO FRAVEGA.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 593,947 Mattson Nov. 16, 1897 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 6,709 Germany of 1879 68,498 Norway of 1944 

